Lin 100-800 Introduction to Linguistics
Fall Semester 2001
223 SWETMAN HALL TTh 11:10–12:30

Course Description:

An introduction to the study of language that explores how linguists think about language and languages. That distinction reflects the fact that all people have language, but speak distinct languages. Linguists examine individual languages in order to understand their structures, but also to identify common features—universals—that define language. Our exploration will take the following steps: the study of words and word-formation—morphology; the combination of words into phrases and clauses—syntax; the ways words, phrases, and clauses "mean" things—semantics; the sounds of language—phonetics; and the systematic relationship between sounds in different languages—phonology. The course will conclude with the biological and psychological roots of language and the social and historical contexts that affect language use.

Classroom Activities:

Lectures, discussions, in-class exercises drawing from a variety of different languages (many examples will be from English, but no knowledge of a foreign language is needed to explore the examples from different language families).

Expectations:

Bring your language with you. Language, Noam Chomsky suggests, is easy to learn (if you are young enough), but hard to use. Where do we stumble or have to make special efforts to say what we want? How do we adjust our speech to circumstances? How does our speaking differ from that of other English speakers? How has English changed? How do English, and its siblings and cousins differ from languages that re complete different from it? Your questions and speculations will be essential to our understanding. Attendance is particularly imporatnt because of the range and number of questions we'll be raising, but also because of the concepts and techniques that have been developed to approach those questions.


Work for the Course and Evaluation of Perfomance:

Two one-hour examinations, which will build on each other, with slightly greater weight being given to each examination, so that your growing knowledge will be reflected in your grade; a two-hour last examination with a comphrensive component as well as coverage of the last third of the term. Ten to twelve relatively informal homework assignments, drawn from the texts or other materials will be assigned. The two lowest homework grades will not count; therefore, we don't have to worry about late assignmentsÑtwo will be forgiven (IF THEY ARE TURNED IN). Otherwise, late assignments will get E grades.


Examination 1 (Introduction, Phonetics and Phonology, Acquisition)

10 % of grade

Examination 2 (Morphology and Syntax, Acquisition, Dialects)
20 % of grade

Examination 3 (Semantics, Sociolinguistics, History)

40 % of grade

Homework assignments (two worst grades don't count)
20 % of grade

Participation (attendance expected)
10 % of grade

Office Hours (208 Swetman Hall–click for directions):

Monday: 8:30–10; 2–3
Tuesday: 8:30–9:15; 4-4:30
Wednesday: 8:30–10; 2–3
Thursday: 8:30–9:15
BE SURE TO CALL 312-2601, or email at dhill@oswego.edu if you need to see me at another time. I'm eager to talk with each one of you as often as we can.

Textbooks:

Fromkin and Rodman. An Introduction to Language  6th ed. Fort Worth:
      Harcourt Brace, 1998
Ohio State Linguistics Department. Language Files. 7th ed. Columbus:
      Ohio State Univ. Press, 1998.


Schedule of Readings and Assignments		  
Date
 TOPIC Fromklin and Rodman Language Files
T Aug
28
   Introductory    
Th
30
     Ch. 1: Knowledge in lanaguage, universals 1.1–.6
T Sep
4
   The brain and Ch. 2: The brain, aphasias 9.1
Th
6
   language ------: "savants"  
T
11
   Phonetics Ch. 6: Articulatory phonetics 3.1–3.7
Th
13
   ------: Location and manner 3.5–.8
T  
18
   NO CLASS (Rosh Hashanah)  
Th
20
   Phonology Ch. 7: Sound patterns and allophones 4.1–.3
T
25
   ------: Phonological rules 4.4–.6
Th  
27
   NO CLASS (Yom Kippur)  
T Oct
2
   ------: Phonological rules 4.4–.6
Th
4
   Acquisition Ch. 8: Stages and theories 9.2–.5
T
9
     -------  
Th
11
   EXAMINATION ONE  
T
16
   Morphology Ch 3: Words and morphemes 5.1
Th
18
     ------: Kinds of morphemes 5.2–.3
T
23
     ------: Formation rules, grammatical morphemes 5.4–.6
Th
25
     Morphological analyses 5.7
T
30
   Syntax Ch. 4: Grammaticality, phrase structure 6.1–3
Th Nov
1
     ------: phrase structure 6.4–.6
T
3
     ------: phrase structure  
Th
8
   Generativity and transformations 6.6–.7
T
10
   Generativity and transformations 6.6–.7
Th
15
   EXAMINATION TWO  
T
20
   Semantics Ch. 5: Word, sentence, phrase meanings 7.1–4
Th
22
 Thanksgiving Recess  
T
27
   Social varieties Ch. 10: Dialects and standards (N. America) 12.1.–.3
Th
29
   -------: Dialects and levels 12.4–8
T Dec
4
  

History

 Ch. 11: Changes in sound and morphology 10.1–3, .13–14
Th  
6
   -------: Changes in syntax and meaning 10.6–.11
M
10
   -------: Language reconstruction 10.5
W  
12
   FINAL EXAMINATION 10:30 am IN CLASSROOM